THE FIFTH BEATLE

From 1960 to 1962,Best was drummer with The Beatles,and by some accounts,the most popular member of the grouphe had moody good looks that had the girls swooning and drummed an atom beat that became the signature of the Liverpool sound. He was asked to leave the band in 1962. The boys,manager Brian Epstein told him,didnt want him anymorea decision that was never fully explained and one that cast Best into the leagues of the almost famous. Decades later,the 67-year-old doesnt bear much bitterness. I admired them for what they achieved. They took what we started to another level, Best said over e-mail from London.

Best arrives in India this week as part of the Liverpool tourism promotion campaign,Visit Britain and The Beatles Story. Its a tour that renews his India connection. Best was born in Madras in 1941 to John,an army physical training instructor,and Mona Best,a nurse in the Red Cross. He lived in Bombay too for a brief while. The family left the country in 1945; packed in their luggage were treasures from an exotic world: a silver-christening rattle,a mini hand-carved sitar,Buddhas,tiger skins and elephant tusks. My memories of India are of happy times. Our house was always full of laughter, he said. Perhaps it was here in Chennai that he discovered the tabla. I remember playing with a tabla. I dont know if you would call it actually playing one,but they were around the house, he said. I expect India to bring memories alive.

Liverpool in the 1960s moved to a different beat. There were as many as 300 bands performing beat music in more than 200 pubs,coffee houses and jazz bars. Musical venues sprouted at an almost exponential rate to cater to the young populace of the industrial town. The music spawned here would set the stage for a popular new sound revolution.

The Casbah Coffee Club fit right in. When Mona Best decided to convert her cellar into a café- cum-performance-space for the steady stream of son Petes friends and the many bands of the city, she paid a small tribute to the memories of the land she had left behind Mona was born in Delhi in 1924. The name Casbah was definitely something my mother remembered from India, said Best. She also wanted the Aztec ceiling in the café painted with stars to make it look like a mosque. Petes friends John Lennon,George Harrison and Paul McCartney,who went by the name of The Quarrymen,were more than eager to lend a hand. They decorated the space,painted its walls,drawing dragons,spiders and stars on them. On the opening night,August 29,1959,The Quarrymen also played there. The Casbah was also one of the first cellar clubs in Liverpool to play rock n roll exclusively and host several new bands. The Casbah Coffee Club is the Holy Grail of the Beatles trail. No true Beatle fan should miss seeing it, said Best.

A year later,the Quarrymen had undergone several changes,called themselves The Beatles,were minus a drummer and had bagged a tour to Germany. One afternoon,Paul phoned Pete at home and asked: Howd you like to come to Hamburg with the Beatles? Pete agreed. The Beatles then comprised John Lennon,Paul McCartney,George Harrison,Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best. The tour tested the bands limits with gigs that often lasted for eight hours at a stretch. That was the start of something big.

When they returned to England and resumed performances in Casbah,they shot up the popularity charts. Best developed his signature beat that was soon picked up by other bands. Together,they belted out some memorable songs,including Love me do,My Bonnie,Aint She Sweet and Like Dreamers Do. Mersey Beat,the local music magazine,raved about the mean,moody magnificence of drummer Pete Best,the one girls were crazy about,more because he wouldnt grace their attention with a smile. It was the start of Beatlemania, Best said. Nobody knew them at that time. They were a start-up band.Mo was a pivotal figure for their growth,helping the band get bookings at other pubs and music venues.

By 1962,the Beatles were the number one band in the Liverpool music scene. But the strains in the band had begun to show. In the same year,Best was shown the door. Conspiracy theories abound on Bests exit. Some said Best was so good-looking that others in the band felt insecure,others that Best was never a Beatle,he was a loner,and he didnt fit in. I was hurt because I felt I had been let down by my friends, he said. Ringo Starr was a good drummer,not a great drummer.

For days after the split,there were times when Best looked at the Beatles as they walked up the stairs to the stage but not a word was exchanged. I saw the Beatles on two occasions after I was dismissed,but we didnt talk. Everyone looked embarrassed, he said. It got worse. Ringo hinted in interviews that Best was on drugs. An angry Best sued him and the case was settled out of court.
Years later,in a book that was part of The Beatles Anthology 1995 a documentary series,three albums and a book Paul McCartney said of that decision: It was one of the most difficult things we ever had to do.

Mo too felt betrayed. She told Beatles biographer Hunter Davies that she had helped the band get on its feet,even fed them,and was far more interested in them than their own parents. In 1967,despite the fallout,she lent John Lennon the medals her father earned in India that he wanted to wear for a montage of the Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band cover.
The split also brought the curtains down on Casbah. It closed in 1962 and the Beatles were the last group to perform there. Three years ago,Casbah reopened as a tourist attraction in Liverpool,one among a string of places that the tourism industry has turned into a shrine for The Beatles Story.

It wasnt easy moving on when the world was going crazy over Beatles. And Best had a tough time. He joined the Lee Curtis amp; the All Stars band after the Beatles,which then broke off from Curtis and became Pete Best amp; the All Stars.
He was a full-time musician till 1968 but he quit to give a better life to his familytwo daughters and wife Kathy. The only job he could find was of a baker on the loading dock of a large bakery in Liverpool,where he worked long hours and often during the nights. I had to start again,which I did. I finally hung up my drum sticks because I had children and needed to provide for them, he said. Because I had been a musician for so long,nobody would employ me. They felt because I had been a Beatle,I would go back to show business. They were scared to employ me. And so he lived,with no higher destiny to chase.

Twenty years later,after a brief career in the civil service,he returned to his drums,and formed the Pete Best Band. I had been asked for about five years to do a one-off show in Liverpool. I always refused. Eventually my mother persuaded me that one date wouldnt hurt, he said. In 1995,when the Anthology released,it included some of the tracks that had Best on the drums. He was paid an undisclosed sum for those numbers. The money was nice,but it was better to receive the recognition for the years I played as a Beatle, Best said.
Best has three grandchildren who he adores. He has got back to music,drumming and writing songs again,touring the world with his band that includes his younger brother Roag on drums and percussion,Phil Melia,Paul Perry,and Tony Flynn,the lead singer.

Haymans Green,the bands latest release,has songs that Best and the rest of the band composed. My current group captures my time with The Beatles. However,it is also a force in its own right. If you like The Beatles,youll like this group. We are not a copy band. How could I copy myself? Best said.
Why,after all these years,hasnt he been able to shrug off the beginnings made in Casbah? There have only been six members of The Beatles and I was the fifth. I am very proud to wear that tag. Who wouldnt be? The shadow of The Beatles hasnt left any former Beatle. None of us could shake it off. It is what it is, he said.

A new beat
Best has released various albums: Back to the Beat,Once a Beatle Always,Casbah Coffee Club,and his latest Haymans Green. He also co-authored two books,including The Beatles,The True Beginnings that traces the bands early years and his mothers influence on Liverpool music scenes. In 2007,Best was inducted into the All You Need Is Liverpool Music Hall of Fame as the debut Charter Member.
The Pete Best Band performs on November 3 at British Council Library,New Delhi.